Clarke facing Labour revolt over probation shakeup

The home secretary, Charles Clarke, is facing a growing backbench revolt over his plans to introduce a "mixed market" in the supervision of offenders, with 62 Labour MPs so far backing a Commons motion opposing any move to privatise the probation service.

The rising discontent among Labour MPs comes as Mr Clarke has promised that he will begin the new year with a series of announcements to outline his "vision of expanding contestability in the delivery of offender services".

The new measures are expected to include legislation to enable private companies and voluntary organisations to be involved in the supervision of the 200,000 offenders who are in the charge of the probation service every year.

A five-year plan for the development of prison and probation services is to be published in late January followed by the launch of a "detailed contestability prospectus" aimed at the public, voluntary and private sector suppliers. Mr Clarke has said he will specify the type, length and value of contracts which will be let to ensure a "viable market in offender management" is created.

The Commons early day motions signed by 62 backbench MPs - well beyond the strength of the "usual suspects" - urge the government not to franchise or privatise part or all of the probation service. Instead they call for a partnership with private and voluntary providers instead of competition between them.

Austin Mitchell, Labour MP for Great Grimsby, said that he believed the last shakeup which created the national probation service in 2001 was working well. "Why is it now being scrapped?" he asked. Neil Gerrard, Labour MP for Walthamstow, said no case had been made or evidence put forward on how the replacement of the national service with a fragmented model would cut re-offending.

Harry Fletcher of Napo, the probation union, said: "These proposals involve abolishing a successful national probation service which was established in its current form only four years ago and is now performing better than ever against all targets and replacing it with a mish-mash of providers, public, voluntary and private, competing with each other to provide probation services."

Mr Fletcher said it would be a recipe for chaos which would see re-offending rates rise as the levels of supervision fell.

It is expected that the home secretary will confirm the plans when he announces a bill in January covering the management of offenders, new powers on antisocial behaviour, and reform of the youth justice system. Just before the Christmas recess Mr Clarke confirmed that the first cluster of prisons to be offered for takeover by private companies - three jails on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent - are to remain in the public sector. The bid was won by the Prison Service after it demonstrated that it could deliver strong improvements when compared with private prison companies.